Handmade jewelry

Handmade jewelry is jewelry which has been assembled and formed by hand rather than through the use of machines.

According to the guidelines of the FTC, in order to be stamped or called "handmade" the work must be made without the use of electricity except for polishing Beyond that caveat it can be anything made out of anything that would be considered jewelry.

The American Gem Trade Association Spectrum awards, the Gem Center Idar Oberstein, and the De Beers Awards include awards specifically for handmade jewelry.

Although there is much mass produced jewelry in the world, there are many people who prefer to have work that is hand-crafted by a real artisan, and the arena of hand made jewelry and other items will likely remain healthy because of that fact. Much jewelry that is marked or sold as "hand made" often is not truly so, though it may be essentially so. It can be difficult to do some tasks such as drilling without electricity, but to be truly handmade, every task must be done by human power alone.